Fuse.



FUSE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 4, 190B.

Patented May 4, 1909.

H. E. ELLSWORTH.

Attest 4 6%. c ja 14g UNITED STATES PATENTOFFICE.

HENRY E. ELLSWORTH, OF SIMSBURY, CONNECTICUT, 'ASSIGNOR To THE ENsIGN-BICKroRn COMPANY, OF SIMSBURY, CONNECTICUT, A CORPORATION OF CONNECTICUT.

FUSE.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY E. ELLsWoRTH,

a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the town of Simsbury, in the State of Connecticut, have invented .certainnew and;

through its outer casing, whatever that casing may .be, or'renderthe same hot enough to ignite any inflammable substance which may for the time being surround the same or bein contact therewith. In minin for instance, where powder is placed in oles which have been drilled say from six to eight feet in depth and where such charges are fired by leading a fuse down through five or six feet of powder in order to ignite a cap near the bottom of the charge, it is impracticable to emplo a fuse which, while it is conducting the re to the cap, permits the fire to issue from its sides or whose periphery becomes heated to such an extent as to set fire to the powder before the fuse has communicated the fire to the cap. "Where the powder is thus ignited before the cap is red it burns and does not explode, and the burning of the powder produces a great deal of smoke; so that in such cases the effect of the blast is not only lost, but the workings, at the operating point, are filled with gas and smoke which 'it takes a considerable time to clear away, before the operating point can again be approached.

To obviate such objectionable results and to plroducea fuse which. will not'spit throu h' or made use of for purpbses of illustration and explanation, although. it will be understood that such a structure constitutes merely one embodiment of which'the invention is capable.

In the drawings where such fuse is illus- Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed May 4, 1908. Serial No. 430,689.

In describing the in-, vention a fuse thus spun and countered is Patented May 4, I909.

trated, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a short length thereof with one end laid open to show the different parts, and, 2 1s a view in transverse section one large scale.

In constructing this fuse the longitudinal strands or threadsa, are spun in any convenient manner while gun-powder (indicated at b) or any other suitable medium for transmitting or conveying the. fire through the fuse, is fed between the strands so as to lie substantially along the center of the finished fuse. The spun threads. or strands a; are

covered or countered by being wound with counter strands c which bind the strands a rather tightly and maintain them .in their spun position vwith the powder between t em. A double set of counter strands is preferably provided, the outer setof counter" strands being indicated by the letter d, and in fact as many sets of counter strands may be provided as is desirable in any particular case; In manufacturingfuse in this way,

special machinery is generally provided to.

spin the longitudinal strands and wind the counter strands, all of which is old and well understood in the art-and therefore requires no particular description herein.

In accordance 'wi-h the present invention the material of the fuse which isimrnediately associated with the powder is either substan tially fire proof or rendered so before the fuse is completed. I have discovered'that In this way theobjectionable spitting-through of the" fire as the fuse burns may be entirely obviated, and thatthe eriphei'y of the fuse does not become heated y the burning to anyexcessive-extent. "lhe reason for this, as it seemsto me, is that. as the fuse burns, the combustion is confined to the powder alone and does not extend in any substantial de-. 'gree to the material of theffuse, whereby a 7 great deal less gas and smoke is produced in the interior of .the fuse and consequently the pressure developed in the interior of the-fuse during the burning thereof is greatly reduced. Besides this reduction in ressure, there Is no weakening of what may e referred to as the Walls of the fuse which in other cases would be caused by'theburning of these wallsiso that it will be" easy to see thattheliabihty of thegases developed in the interior of the fuse to project the flame, so to speak, through the sides of the fuse will be greatly decreased.

Moreoverthe presence of a fire proof material or medium around the burning powder not only lessens the power of the fuse to conduct the heat of combustion to the exterior thereof but also, by remaining unburned, keeps the actual burning or combustion at a greater distance from the peri hery. Thus the periphery is much less iable to become excessively heated.

In the present case the material immediately'associated with the owder is represented by the longitudina .strands a, and

' this purpose but I find that gutta While these strands may be made of any fire proof material, I refer to make them of cotton and render t em fire proof in any convenient manner, as by app ying a chemical solution. I have found, for instance, that by immersing cotton strands, before the spinning process, 'in a solution of sodium silicate diluted to about 25 Baum and then, before thoroughly drying the strands, immersing them again in a solution of aluminum and copper sulfates (composed of one part of each of the sulfates to ten parts of water) and finally drying the strands slowly in the air, a very satisfactory material is provided for my purpose. I do not limit myself however to the employment of any particular chemical solution for the urpose of rendering the longitudinal stran s fire proof, nor do I confine myself to the employment of longitudinal strands which require treatment to render them fire proof, for, as I stated above, I may em loy longitudinal strands made of materia which is fire proof by nature. And I also wish it to be particularly understood that I do not limit myself to the employment of longitudinal strands as the only form of the material which is immediately associated with the gun-powder, as such material may obviously be in some other form than longitudinal strands.

In using my improved fuse, it is often necessary to run the same through Water so that it is desirable to,render it waterproof in some suitable manner. For this purpose, after the longitudinal strands have been spun and the counter strands 0 have been wound thereon, I a ply a layer of gutta percha which thoroug y permeates and unites the counter strands cand forms a gum-likecoating over the same. Of course, other materials such as varnish and the like may be employed for works particularly well. I also pre erably apply asphaltum to the strands c which as sists in uniting them together and adds to the water proof qualities of the fuse. Over the layer of gutta percha the strands d heretofore referred to, are wound, and then the fuse is finished by applying thereto a mixture of china clay or some other finishing substance, which can be done by causing the fuse to be passed through such a mixture. In this way the body" portion of the fuse which consists of the gun-powder and its vehicle, preferably ercha thread.

the fire, and a fire. )roof material associated with said medium 1n the core of the fuse.

2. Fuse having a medium for conveying the fire, a fire proof material associated with said medium, and a covering around the fire proof material.

3. Fuse having a medium for conveying the fire, and a fire proof material spun about said medium.

4. Fuse having a medium forconveying -the fire, a fire proof material spun about said medium, and a covering around the fire proof material.

5. Fuse havin a medium for conveying the fire, longitudinal fire proof strands spun about the material, and -a covering around the fire proof material.

6. Fuse having a medium for conveying the fire, and a vehicle for the said medium formin therewith the core of the fuse, the

fire proof.

7. Fuse having a medium for conveying the fire, and a vehicle for the said medium formin therewith the core of the fuse, the said ve 'cle being treated with a fire proofing solution.

8. Fuse having a medium for conveying the fire, a vehicle for the said medium, the said vehicle having been'tre'ated to render the same fire proof, and a .cover around the said vehicle.

9. Fuse having-a medium -for conveying the fire, and a vehicle for said mediumconsisting of longitudinal strands treated with a fire proofing solution.

10. Fuse having a medium for conveying said ve 'cle being treated to render the same I the fire, a vehicle for the said medium, the said vehicle consisting of longitudinal strands proof, and a 12. Fuse having a medium for conveying the fire, a vehicle for the said medium consisting of strands of thread which have been treated to render the same fire proof, and a cover consisting of untreated strands of 13. Fuse having a medium for conveying the fire, a vehicle for the said medium conv strands of threadtreatedto render the same sisting of strands of thread which have been treated to render the same fre proof, and a cover consisting of untreated strands of thread and a Water proofing substance.

'14. Fuse containing gun-powder, and fire proof material associated therewith in the core of the fuse.

15. Fuse containinggun-powder, and fire proof strands spun about the gun-powder.

16. Fuse containing gun-powder, and

fire proof and spun about said gun-powder.

17 Fuse containing gun-powder, fire proof strands spun about thegun-powder, and a covering of strands wound around the spun strands.

18. Fuse containing gun-powder, fire proof strands associated with the gun-powder and a Water proof cover.

19: Fuse containing gun-powder, fire proof strands associated with the gun-powder, strands wound around the fireproof strands,

a layer of gutta percha around the would strands, and other strands wound around the layer of gutta percha. 1

20. Fuse containing'gun-powder, strands of thread spun about the gun-powder, the said strands having been treated with a solution of sodium silicate and a solution of the sulfates of aluminum and copper to render the same fire proof, and counter strands of thread forming a cover.

21.. Fuse containing gun powder, strands of thread spun about the gun powder, the said strands having been treatedwith a solution of sodium silicate and a solution of theand witnessed 

